In the vehicle lighting industry, illumination can be achieved through the use of various light sources, all of which require a housing, a substrate, or a body composed of a material through which light can pass. Therefore, conventional lamps for illumination must be mounted in areas that do not restrict vision or light.
This disclosure assumes that the reader has familiarity with U.S. Pat. No. 7,217,956, titled “LIGHT ACTIVE SHEET MATERIAL” sometimes referred to herein as “light sheet” or “light sheet technology,” and with US 2008/0079012, titled “ILLUMINATED DEVICES UTILIZING TRANSPARENT LIGHT ACTIVE SHEET MATERIAL WITH INTEGRATED LIGHT EMITTING DIODE (LED), METHODS AND KIT THEREFOR”. Each of these is hereby expressly incorporated by reference.
Alternative solutions for a flexible thin light product that can be used as either an edge or flat light product that presently exist include:                Light pipe—one disadvantage is its non-uniformity around corners        EL lighting—one disadvantage is EMI concerns created with DC/DC converter        OLED—one disadvantage is that it can degrade when exposed to humidity and can be difficult to seal from exterior environment.        